Susan Lee’s Reflections in the Capstone Project

During my time in Cassini Nazir and Kyle Kondas’ capstone honors course, I learned the more granular aspects in the various stages of video production. Granted, there were challenges along the way, but overall the experience has helped me develop a more critical attention to detail and storytelling.

I began each video project by meeting with Cassini and Kyle to get an overview of the subject I would research. After researching the profile of the subject or an event, I then came up with relevant questions that I would ask in the interview. After that, I recorded the interview and then proceeded to edit.

After shooting video, I began the post-production process. Editing the video generally involved several steps:

Importing the clips to the computer.

Extracting the best clips that were to be used in the video and then importing those clips into a video editing software.

Adjusting the audio.

Cutting and moving the video clips around the timeline.

Creating special effects and profile banners in After Effects and applying them into the video.

Finally, applying color corrections the the video footage.

During the post-production process, I met with Cassini and Kyle to show each version I completed. They offered feedback on what should be further edited, how to make the story in the video be more compelling, and I then made further changes to the video accordingly. This process would repeat until the video was polished enough to be published online via YouTube and Vimeo.

Throughout my projects, I have learned to be more mindful and decisive of how I wanted my videos to narrate to my audience – who are the incoming students, the parents of those students, and the general student population at The University of Texas at Dallas. Additionally, I also realized how important it was to receive feedback and critique on my works so I could continue to improve them before they were finalized. Then, there were simple things that I had already practiced but realized they were of significant value like taking notes, keeping close communication with my capstone advisors and updating them of my progress.